A Passport to the Past

On a rather dreary Sunday afternoon when the weather is promising both intermittent sunshine and steady showers, where do you go that can offer fascinating outdoors and interesting interiors? Back in time? Is that possible? Well, yes - in a manner of speaking.

Ever since I had first visited Little Woodham with a group of school children on an educational field trip, I had been meaning to return so that I could chat leisurely with the villagers and stand and watch as they re-enacted the activities of life in the seventeenth century. I wanted to be able to take it at my own pace without worrying about whether all thirty four of my charges were staying in their groups, being on their best behaviour and above all  being engrossed in learning about seventeenth century life. (They were!)

Increasing housing development in the area made it harder to find but once there, the re-created village nestles into beautiful oak woodland which screens out the 21st century quite effectively.

There is so much that is impressive here. The buildings, the collection of period tools and artifacts, the costumes, the atmosphere but above all the enthusiasm and dedication of the inhabitants. It is this that drives the research to enable them to create the authenticity of the place, the stories they tell and the crafts and occupations they enact. The details were fascinating.

Dorset buttons and braid making.

Weaving using thread spun and dyed with plants in the village.

A porringer and chafing dish among the work of the potter.

The surgeon's tool kit - anyone for a little cupping or blood-letting?

Apothecary herbs in a cottager's garden

I was intrigued by this little rack of wooden spoons in the alehouse, in spite of the fact that behind me the local surgeon was trouncing HeWhoHadNeverPlayedBefore in a game of Nine Mens Morris.

In two hours we had seen and learned so much but left feeling we had probably only skimmed the surface of what the villagers could have told us.

An afternoon spent in 1642.